This invention relates to a process for debriding bone and is principally concerned with the removal of the periosteum, a specialized connective tissue covering all bones of the body, as a preliminary step in the processing of bone which is intended for osteoprosthetic use.
Bone and related tissue referred to as allografts, hereinafter collectively referred to as "bone" for the sake of convenience, are used in numerous surgical specialities to repair or replace defective or damaged bones. The range of allograft transplants includes entire joints, sections of long bone, bone chips for surgical procedures such as spinal fusion and craniotomies and bone dust used in dental repair/reconstruction.
Prior to use in osteoprosthetic surgery, harvested bone tissue may be processed by any of a variety of procedures, e.g., defatting, demineralization, reshaping, and the like, which prepare the bone for grafting or implantation. As a necessary preliminary to these and other bone tissue processing techniques, connective tissue which tenaciously adheres to the bone, the periosteum, must be removed, a procedure referred to herein as "debridement". Up until now, it has been the practice to accomplish debridement of bone by purely mechanical techniques, a time-consuming, labor-intensive procedure which adds significantly to the cost of bone tissue intended for osteoprosthetic use.